


it tore me apart like a hurricane

by lookingforward



Category: VALORANT (Video Game)
Genre: Best Friends, Bonding Over Shared Guilt, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Late Night Conversations, Worldbuilding, let these two address their emotions instead of hiding behind fake confidence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:13:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforward/pseuds/lookingforward
Summary: “So, what’s the matter? Can’t sleep?”Jett let out a long sigh. “You remember when you told me about… your university? Back in London?”Phoenix nodded, face darkening. He’d never be able to forget the sight, flames spilling from every window of the charred building. He hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out how many of his fellow students he’d killed.“I remember.”“I thought you’d… understand, I guess.”Jett and Phoenix both have their unfortunate pasts. They find comfort in each other.
Relationships: Jett & Phoenix (VALORANT)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28





	it tore me apart like a hurricane

**Author's Note:**

> i haven’t posted since june and then i wander back to ao3 with valorant fanfiction.
> 
> look at the end notes to find the canon reasons why i made these plot points. yes, this comes with lore!  
> quick canon refresher: a radiant is a person with powers, and first light was an ambiguous global event that caused chaos and made people radiants.
> 
> no, i don’t ship them, but if you do, i’m sure you’ll like this.

“Hey, man.”

Phoenix looked up from the flames dancing in his palm to see Jett leaning in his doorway.

“What’re you doing up?” he asked, extinguishing the fire in his hand.

Jett was no longer in her battle gear, instead wearing the Valorant Protocol-issued grey pyjamas. “I could ask you the same thing.”

And she was right, of course. A quick glance at the flashing digital clock on his bedside table told Phoenix that it was just past 3am. He faltered when he realised he had been staring at nothing for hours.

“You could. Or you could just tell me why you’re here.”

Jett sighed heavily, a crack in her cocky façade. “I didn’t want to wake Sage, and I saw the light under your door.”

Phoenix shifted over from where he sat on his bed, looking up at his visitor expectantly. She gratefully let the sliding door shut behind her and took a seat next to him. Now engulfed in darkness, Phoenix threw a fireball onto the steel floor and let the room wash in soft light.

Phoenix turned to his friend. “So, what’s the matter? Can’t sleep?”

Jett let out another long sigh. “I just- I can’t stop thinking. You remember back when we first met? And you told me about… your university? Back in London?”

Phoenix nodded, face darkening. He’d never be able to forget the sight, flames spilling from every window of the charred building. He hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out how many of his fellow students he’d killed.

“I remember.”

“I thought you’d… understand, I guess.” She blew some hair off her forehead, avoiding meeting her friend’s eyes.

“Understand what?” When Jett turned away from him to examine the regulation Valorant Protocol blankets on the bed, Phoenix huffed. “It’s 3 in the morning, Jett. Start talking or get out.”

Jett audibly swallowed. “When I- when I became radiant, I was in Seoul with my family.”

Phoenix instantly regretted his harsh tone. He found himself bracing for whatever he was about to hear. Nothing good could come from this story. 

“I… panicked,” she continued. “I managed to keep it under wraps for a few days- the world was disastrous enough already- but eventually…” Jett trailed off.

She glanced down at her hands, fidgeting with the polyester of her pyjama pant leg. “It was stupid. I think my sister broke something- I barely even remember. But I just lost control.”

Her voice had lowered to the faintest of whispers. “I caused a tornado. The worst Korea has ever seen. There was so much destruction. H-hundreds died.”

Phoenix’s heart dropped to his stomach, but he knew showing it would make it much worse. So, he swallowed his grimace and shifted closer to his friend. Phoenix knew Jett wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of person, and neither was he, but he couldn’t stop himself from pulling her into a side-hug. She leaned into it, her curled-up body a stark contrast from her usual confidence.

“I never told anybody. The Valorant people figured it out, of course. I think that’s part of why they recruited me. They think I can just… cause mass destruction at the drop of a hat.” Her breathing quickened, and Phoenix just managed to pull her into a real hug as tears began to fall.

“I didn’t- I never meant to,” she managed to choke out, as a sob wracked her body.

“It’s okay,” he muttered, inwardly hating how useless he sounded. One of his best friends was sobbing onto his shoulder at 3 in the morning, in some godawful secret organisation headquarters, and all he could say was “it’s okay.”

“I miss them every day.” Her cries were muffled into the shoulder of Phoenix’s jacket. He patted her on the back a few times in a (hopefully) comforting manner, but it just came off as awkward. After a minute of fumbling, he decided to just wait for her to let everything out.

Useless.

“How do you do it?” Minutes later, Jett lifted her head from Phoenix’s shoulder and looked at him with red-rimmed, asking eyes.

“What?” 

“How did you… what did you do after…?” she trailed off, and Phoenix realised she was talking about the university incident.

“I-” he paused. What did he do? It was a question he never even thought about. He had… run. He had been running from it when he met Jett, when he joined the Valorant Protocol, when this whole mess all started. He’d been trying to escape his past for years now, but he still hadn’t succeeded.

“I think about it all the time,” he admitted. “I regret it all. But there’s nothing we can do now. All we can do is try to be better here, yeah?” He gave her a soft smile, ignoring the wetness in his eyes. She returned it.

Jett broke the momentary silence. “We’re just two disasters, aren’t we?” 

Phoenix grinned faintly at the words. “At least we have Sage to keep us in check.”

Jett brightened at the mention of Sage. If there was one constant in every agent's life, aside from tragedy, it was their healer.

“I’m… glad that you could tell me. About your past, I mean.” The words felt foreign in Phoenix’s mouth. He briefly wondered how much he’d changed since First Light and the Valorant Protocol.

“Yeah.” She let out a humourless chuckle, one that didn’t meet her eyes. “I needed to get it off my chest, and I figured you’d understand. Thanks for listening to me cry, I guess.”

“Anytime. Door’s always open.”

As she slowly got up to leave, she shot him a look. “Tomorrow? This didn’t happen, got it?”

He shrank back from her menacing look. “Understood.” Even after a crying session in her friend’s room, Jett was intimidating.

Her threatening expression softened back into a smile. A real one, not the fake and cocky grin she wore on the battlefield.

“Goodnight, Phoenix. Get some sleep.”

The metal door slid closed, and with that, he was left alone in his bedroom.

What a night.

**Author's Note:**

> i’ve been obsessed with valorant lore lately and in jett’s contract, she has a player card called ‘mirror’s edge’ and it can be assumed from the depicted picture that she caused a tornado in seoul due to her powers. the same goes for phoenix, he has a player card called ‘firestarter’ in which it depicts a real london university on fire. i have assumed that both of these events were due to them not being able to control their powers, and thus this was born.
> 
> check out this incredible video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQ787Fdbng) for all the valorant lore you could ever want.
> 
> i smashed this out very late at night and finished it at 3:09am. probably not my best work ever, but i'm happy with it.
> 
> my tumblr is @lookingforwardwrites if you wanna swing by or leave a request
> 
> i’d love if you could leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed!


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